1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to the field of aircraft display units that provide information to the pilot or flight crew of an aircraft.
2. Description of the Related Art
Runway incursions are the most noticeable form of taxi navigation error. Increased scrutiny by regulatory authorities has heightened the awareness of the safety issues related to runway incursions. Taxi navigation errors cause many runway incursions and present potential collision hazards.
Systems used for presenting runway incursion and/or basic surface traffic information to a pilot for avoiding runway incursions may be comprised of two basic components. One component could comprise the display of airport, airport surfaces, and/or and other information on a visual display unit, wherein such display could show ground and/or air traffic. Another component could comprise advisories such as caution and/or warning alerts that could be generated by a processor employing one or more runway incursion-related algorithms to known traffic information.
Systems that display airport, airport surfaces, and/or and other symbolic information on an aircraft display unit can provide the pilot with too much information or information that is rich in detail. In such case, the pilot could lose his or her situational awareness because specific symbols of interest or importance are not highlighted or made conspicuous when displayed with other symbologies.